Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Choedak introduces the foundational Chenrezig compassion practice, walking practitioners through the visualisation and mantra recitation that forms the heart of this retreat. He begins with preliminary refuge invocations and the cultivation of bodhicitta, then guides students through dissolving ordinary identity into emptiness before taking the form of four-armed Avalokiteśvara. The core practice centres on the six-syllable mantra Om Mani Padme Hum, with each syllable directing rays of coloured light to one of the six realms of sentient beings: white to gods, green to demigods, yellow to humans, blue to animals, red to hungry ghosts, and dark blue to hell realms. Choedak explains the mantra’s meaning as jewel in the lotus—the jewel of compassion combined with the lotus of loving-kindness—and emphasises maintaining vivid visualisation while reciting, imagining all beings liberated from their specific sufferings. Practical instruction addresses visualization technique, the role of concentration, and managing emotional responses to world suffering through this practice. Aimed at participants new to the sadhana who will have several nights to refine the meditation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 C Med.mp3
UUID: acd31337-44e9-4397-82db-902606d55100
Teacher: Choedak
Collection: Chenrezig (Choedak)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~2,985
From your heart, and then sending rays of light of compassion to all six realms, the demigod realm, god realm, human realm, animal realm, spirit realm, and the hell realm, and it is totally designed to totally forget our personal difficulties, but we instead take the role of Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, and then send the prayer of compassion for the sake of all sentient beings. So this is the this is the practice you have that we will do tonight, and we will able to do this able to do this other nights other nights as well. So this practice begins with the, on page five, where we will do an invocation of all the lineage gurus, all the masters in the past twelve hundred years. Each of the names of the lineage masters are invoked in order to assist us to tune our mind in a compassionate mood and take the role of Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. And then once we have done that once we have done that, then we’ll be able to do the actual practice of compassion.
But it first begins with a short refuge and a prayer of enlightenment thought. And the refuge practice that we do in the first thing in the morning, it’s rather similar to the main refuge prayer that we do in the morning, except a slightly different visualization. And once you dissolve the refuge objects or enlightened beings into yourself, then you cultivate the thought of enlightenment and move on to meditate yourself, dissolve into emptiness. Because if we practice our self as a person that we are, to develop compassion, we still have our own emotion, our own sufferings. So it usually becomes very obstructive.
So it is important that we totally take the role of compassionate Avalokiteśvara. And to do that, we should firstly relinquish our ordinary identity as as the person we know, and therefore, you recite the mantra of emptiness. It’s a spell, and this mantra dissolves you into emptiness, just like you went during the empowerment last night, when we went through the empowerment, one is going to take the role of that as a compassionate one. And then, nevertheless, visualize on top of your crown a little Buddha Amitābha, Buddha Amitābha, who you visualize as embodiment, all the enlightened beings, while yourself is in the form of Buddha of compassion. You supplicate to him, and then short meditation on the nature of mind.
And after that, then you actually visualize at your heart a Mantra Rosary radiates, six syllables, Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum. The six syllables you recite. These six syllables are directly prayers that you’re dedicating for the suffering world of the six realms. Om is for the deva realm, realm of the gods, where you send white rays of light, illuminating their world of great indulgence and suffering of comfort and luxury, and waking them up from their unawareness of sufferings in the world. And then when you visualize green rays of light from the syllable Ma, and that goes in the demigod’s realm, so alleviating the suffering of conflict and strife and fighting and Chenrezig.
And likewise, send yellow rays of light from the syllable Ni, or Ma Ni in the human realm. Now think about human realm where there’s a war places as we speak today that are completely ravaged by war, fighting, and all kinds of crisis. Think of all the sufferings of those people and send this wonderful, rich, radiant golden light to that human realm and absorbs all the suffering that creates and lift their sufferings. And imagine the rays of light touches the heart and mind of all and relieves their suffering, whatever they don’t know they’re making, creating themselves of. And in this way, you focus first three syllables, om, ma, ni.
Om, from the realms, and then ma in the in the demigod realm, and the ni in the human realm. Likewise, you visualize, which is light light light blue blue color in the animal kingdom. We send this blue light blue rays of light into the animal kingdom. And those in the sea, those who live the river, live in the mountains, or those those who live in the bush, or both, all kinds of creatures, from those with the vertebrates, those with the and those all kinds of creatures, smallest insects to to the biggest mammals. You visualize all of their kingdoms are illuminated by this very soothing light, blue rays of light, and removing their fear and mutual harm and killing, all of those are just completely eradicated.
Just have this strong heart of prayer that you send. And when you the the red syllable, me, is you send that that rays of light to the hungry ghost realm, realm of spirits. Mostly people who have died within the last forty nine days are in the spirit world, as well as those who have taken rebirth as hungry ghost and spirit. Imagine, particularly the deceased people, all of their spirit that are lost and confused, and confused, and imagine this red rays of light totally permeates the whole world, illuminates, and therefore liberates the suffering of hunger, thirst, fear, and anxiety, whatever the suffering they may have. Then the last syllable, that is the blue color, dark blue color, send rays of dark blue color into the into the hell realms, realms of hellish existence, whether some may be in human realms, realms, some may be in wherever the hell beings are, and visualize all of their world of extreme suffering is completely eliminated by this.
So what you’re doing is while you’re reciting the mantra, even say as few as only say one round or mala, imagine that each time you recite, your your heart is just like a a seed syllable. it becomes the source of the fountain of light, and this fountain of light just shoots through the six syllables, and the color of each relevant six syllables permeates the whole. Thus, this whole world is filled by the six color light, om mani padmehum. When you recite this, it is very much utterance. It is very much a word of compassion.
Means literally means, jewel in the lotus. What you’re really saying, you pay homage to the jewel in the lotus. What is the jewel we are referring to? Mani. Mani is a word the Sanskrit word mani means jewel.
Padma means lotus. Yeah? Padma means lotus. Oh, mani padma. Jewel and the lotus means the jewel is what is called jewel is the compassion.
A lotus lotus is this loving kindness. Now, with this dual combination, loving kindness and compassion, loving kindness is wishing others to have happiness, and compassion is that which eradicate their sufferings. So you’re really praying each time you say, You know, I pay homage to loving kindness and compassion. Please allow me to develop these two. Let all beings be loving kind.
And then visualize simultaneously, oh, while you’re reciting, verbalizing it, rays of light issue through and permeate the whole world, and send to all realms of existence. There’s not a single place that the light doesn’t reach, and imagine they’re all liberated from those sufferings. Whoever the sufferings, you completely free them from sufferings. It’s like someone who’s sad, by these rays of light sending it, you know, it completely liberates them. And with this in mind, you undistractably recite the mantra and send the rays of light, thinking of yourself as the completely enlightened form of Avalokiteśvara, from whose heart these rays of light are going.
So you shouldn’t be thinking of yourself at all, but try to maintain your pure visualization, Avalokiteśvara, and descending rays of light. And then you do this as many as you can, at the conclusion of which, then when you finish that mantra, then what happens is then all the rays of light has liberated all sentient beings, and you feel really, really happy. And then later on, when you conclude it, yourself dissolve into yourself, who was sitting on the lotus flower, and then that lotus flower dissolve into yourself, and yourself, who was in the form of one faced, four armed Buddha of Compassion, becomes a one faced, two armed Buddha of compassion. And your everyday to do existence as yourself, whether you are, whatever you are, your conventional form is this, but your real spirit is now the compassionate one, has taken over you. You’re completely overtaken by the compassionate one.
You have no mind of your own that is left in you. You’re always compassionate. And that’s the whole purpose of this practice. When you do that regularly, particularly when there are a lot of sufferings in the world, it’s very important. Sometimes suffering of the world can frighten us, can make us sad, can make us depressed, and we don’t know what to do, like the current crisis or fear of the war that everybody does have.
It’s instead of contributing to that collective fear and anxiety and confusion and confusion and and and and misunderstanding. You you wanna try to meditate on compassion, and that will be the best thing we can do. And then at the end of it, you dedicate the merits of that, just like yeah. I think. Central, yeah, heart and heart is central, right and right here.
But by the way, when you are meditating in the form of Avalokiteśvara, you are not physical body. You are nature of light. You everything is light. And as from the light body goes many rays of light and then reaches our many beings. Yeah.
Light rays are supposed to come out. It come out from your heart. You’ve got to yearn. You’ve got to feel the sufferings of the world. And suffering or feeling the sufferings of of the world then make make you to send out your wish good wills and wishes and prayers in in in the form of light rays.
Of course, this is first time for quite many of you doing this, but we will have time to do each night. And what you what what you have difficulty with, you can always ask us later in the next few days we have. So now probably we move on doing this because we tomorrow morning, we’re taking the precept also. So we’re rising up earlier. You all forgot that.
Okay. So so we do the Lineage Guru prayer on page five, and and it’s not a long practice, so I’ll make it short and sweet. So briefly, having invoked the lineage gurus, imagine this place of meditation is protected by the blessings so our mind remain in a positive mood to be able to generate great compassion for the sake of all sentient beings, the suffering world, wherever they are, and all the people we have great concerns, imagine all gathered with us on our sides, some on the right, some on the left, with no one missing, everybody present with us, all gathered in a huge congregation in prayer for compassion for the world. And in the space before us is the all enlightened ones manifesting in the form of Buddha Amitābha, Buddha Boundless Light, red in color, whose both hands are in meditation posture. He embodies all the enlightened ones, the lineage gurus, the Buddhas, the bodhisattvas, dakinis, viras, Dharma protectors, all classes of enlightened beings, all contained in Buddha of radiant light Amitābha.
Seeing him as objects of refuge, all beings led by ourselves, whole heartedly join to go for refuge, for they all fear the sufferings of the world, and yet they have developed hope in being able to change the world by mutually developing compassion. With this very motivation, all beings in unison recite the prayer of refuge. Everybody present singing in this most melodious expression of the devotion, joining their palms together with a whole devotion from the body, speech, and heart, they all go for refuge, a safe refuge, and develop compassion. Visualize wholeheartedly by the power ones making these requests. Rays of light issue from the hearts of Buddha Amitābha, which causes all sentient beings seated around us to dissolve all the suffering of the gross body, the illness, illness, their mind, their body, not a remainder of them is left completely turned into rainbow light, and the rainbow light also just completely vanish in the space.
Feel great great joy of having liberated all beings, oneself being the last one to remain. Imagine now Amitābha who’s seated in the space above also transformed into a ball of egg-sized light. By the power of your faith and compassion of a lighter one, this ball of light comes closer and closer to you. Entering through your crown, sending waves of pulsating blessings, merging into you so much so that you completely abide in a state of mind that leaves nothing of your ordinariness, of yourself, your body, your name, your memory, your body, and the mind completely merged with the enlightened one, putting you in a meditative absorption, seeing infinite clarity that is the nature of your mind, the presence of the present moment. When you examine it, it’s empty of color or shape or size or form, completely empty, the ultimate dharma.
This indivisibility of clarity and emptiness is the enlightened mind. So thinking, let the mind be placed in a natural quiescence for as long as you’re able to. Having blessed one’s mental continuum in this way, now one feels ready to generate the thought of bodhicitta. To dedicate this practice, we go about to do for the sake of all sentient beings. With this solemn wish, we therefore recite this prayer once again.
Having generated this thought of compassion, now when, and before one enters into the meditation on Avalokiteśvara, we recite this following mantra, the spell which enables ourself to dissolve into emptiness, to make way for Avalokiteśvara to take over. Thus, we take the whole role of the most compassionate one, a four armed Avalokiteśvara, in which you appear gradually as you chant. All nature of light is sitting in the middle of the space. Not yourself but in the middle of the space, and a beautifully fully blossomed lotus. And therein, your whole body is exquisite nature of light.
And first, let dissolve this ordinary body into emptiness as we recite this mantra. Meditation. In the middle of the space, an exquisitely wonderful appearance of Buddha of compassion, all white in color. The face, the body is so youthful, sixteen year old, vibrant and radiating, beautiful two hands, constant in prayer at the heart, wishing for the happiness of all beings without exception. That your concentration remains so firm to remain in prayer at all times, for the sake of others, of course.
Your second right hand is holding a crystal bead. I constantly looking at the well-being of one after another sentient being, like counting one by one. The needs of each and every one receive the same attention. The fact that you’re holding crystal means you know the suffering and the causes of each every suffering sentient being. Like a mother knows the suffering of an ailing child, one’s compassion is so great.
And to those suffering sentient beings, one gives them the gift of loving kindness expressed by the lotus flower held in your left hand. The way the fingers holds, an appealing gift of a flower, a gift that no one will turn away, is the gift of loving kindness and compassion. You’re wearing wearing heavenly scarves and garments, all graceful, with an antelope skin on your left shoulder, an indication of your sensitivity and a listening ability to the suffering world are like antelope’s attentiveness when it listens to any sound. Your eyes of compassion is gazing everywhere, sees all the nature of suffering beings. You’re wearing six beautiful ornaments like crown, earrings, necklace, bracelets, anklets, precious, made out of precious jewelries, symbol of your six perfections: perfection of generosity, perfection of patience, perfection of moral discipline, perfection of joyous effort, perfection of meditation, and perfection of wisdom. Your body is continually streaming out brilliant white rays of light. On top of your crown sits a tiny thumb sized Amitābha, red in red in color, who you see as the embodiment of all the gurus, all the the masters, all the buddhas, and you pray as your two hands are in already in prayer mood for the sake of all sentient beings. At this point, stay in deep meditation of letting the mind to be totally free of all things, to do and not to do. Just let the mind be anchored in the infinite space, knowing that all things that exist in the world do not have any inherent existence.
Good or bad, hot and cold, suffering and happiness are all interdependent. Nothing of any inherent inherent existence is neither self nor others that exist independent of the other. Thus finding no mind, let alone self. Let the mind stay completely in a natural state of emptiness. Yet clearly visualizing yourself in like rainbow like body of Avalokiteśvara.
Now streams out compassion like like like rays and sends to all beings as you feel the suffering beings and wish to alleviate them, rays of light stream from your heart and lift the suffering beings from each and every being, whatever minor sufferings, such as minor illness or skin irritation to major diseases of the organs, all of them are absorbed by these rays of light from each and every sentient being, and have strong concentration, and use the recitation or mantra as verbalization of your compassionate echo, melody of your compassion that you sing incessantly. Continuous rays of light issue go out and have the effect of removing their sufferings.